Meal Planning

There are many things I want to do better in 2009. One thing in particular is meal planning. I never know what I am going to make until late afternoon and by then I just want to make something easy and mindless. Does that happen to you? So, I have been checking out various meal planning blogs for ideas and recipes. Do you know what? I can do this! I sat down this morning and planned out our entire dinner menu for the week. I am going grocery shopping today and I made a list on the back side of the menu so I can get everything I need.

Here is what we are having this week. (Dad and Tony, I know you will all get a good laugh from this. Remember, I have been house bound due to sub zero temps for four days with a lot of time on my hands!)

Sunday-Spaghetti and Meatballs, salad
Monday- Pork Roast in the crock pot, potatoes and green beans
Tuesday- Chicken, sauteed zucchini, brown rice
Wednesday- Burgers, baked potatoes, broccoli
Thursday- chicken stir-fry
Friday- meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn
Saturday- bubble up enchiladas with a salad

The schedule might vary some as we always have sports or scouts during the week. Here are some of the sites I have found helpful. http://thematzats.blogspot.com/ and http://orgjunkie.com/ if you should want to give it a try. An added bonus for doing this, my boys will no longer keep asking me what's for dinner.(they start doing this at breakfast) They can look on the fridge at the menu for the week and figure it out themselves.

I have also managed to scrapbook while stuck in the house. I made this yesterday and it lists some of the things I will try to work on this year. Just getting in down on paper feels good!

Enjoy your Sunday! Oh, and if anyone has any tips or recipes on meal planning please share!

Snowy weekend

We got our first official blast of winter over the weekend. This is a pic I took on our back patio yesterday afternoon. The accumulation in now over 8 inches. The kids have been outside non stop and are outside as I type this building snow forts and planning their attacks for the huge snowball fight. Eddie took them sledding last night to try out the new sleds Grandma Pat got them for Christmas. The official word was they worked great but need to be waxed to get maximum speed.

Not much on tap for today. I am taking Connor to his friend's birthday party at an indoor pool this afternoon. Go figure, snowballs in the morning, swimming in the afternoon. Should make for one tired little boy.

Huge football game on today. I am confident my NY Giants will kick butt! I am taping the game to watch later. Yes, I am obsessed.

Wanted to share a layout with you. I made this for the December Scenic Route monthly challenge and I am happy to say it was picked as one of this months winners! Whoo Hoo! Have a great Sunday and go GIANTS!

Channeling my inner Laura Ingels

I received a sewing machine from my mother in law for Christmas. I have wanted one for a while but just couldn't justify the purchase. After all, I don't know how to sew and I would only use it for scrapbooking. Eddie makes fun of me because I can barely sew a button on a shirt, let alone use a sewing machine. Well, not anymore! Do you see that? Those are cub scout patches people! That I actually sewed onto Connor's uniform. I am happy to say he is now sporting every stinkin' patch he has earned and can earn as many as humanly possible because I can now sew them on! Please don't tell, but before I got this machine, I was actually going to hot glue the patches onto the shirt. The shame. I think I am going to darn socks next!

I will leave you with a layout. I did this a little bit ago and never shared. Thanks so much for all your comments about my top 10 layouts. It really made my day! Happy Sunday!

Happy New Year and my top 10

As today is the last day of 2008 I want to wish everyone a very happy, healthy and safe new year! A special shout out goes to my mom who after today is retiring! We love you mom!

There is a thread at Studio Calico to post your favorite 10 layouts from 2008 on your blog. Heather challenged me to do it so here are mine in no particular order. If you listed yours, link me up. I would love to see them!

A good time was had by all.

We had a great Christmas! The boys were just ecstatic with their gifts this year! Santa did a great job and did not disappoint. Here they are modeling the new football jerseys Uncle Tony gave to them this year. Zachary's is Dwight Freeney of the Colts and Connor's is Ladanian Tomlinson of the Chargers. Santa brought them the new Nerf game for the Wii along with Rockband 2 for PS3. Zachary's big gift was an ipod Nano and docking station.

Connor got the Star Wars Clone Trooper helmet he has been coveting along with the clone trooper blaster and the Clone Wars video game for Wii. Are you sensing a trend? They also received lots of gifts from Grandma and Grandpa including Cavalier and Ohio State jerseys and lots of games. All in all, they made out like bandits.

As usual, our Christmas was filled with great food and lots of cookies! Too many cookies! Eddie's mom is arriving tomorrow and will be here for New Years. Last time she was here we had 2 feet of snow. I don't think that she will be that lucky this time.

5 days and counting....

until Christmas. Are you ready? I just have to wrap a few things and I am done! Speaking of done, yesterday was our last day of school. Yippee! No alarm clock for 2 weeks!

Zachary's basketball season is in full swing and here is shot from one of last weeks games. This was a tournament. They made it into the championship game but lost to a very tough team. That would be my kid in blue in the middle of all those guys.
We also attended Zachary's Christmas band recital last week. He is in the 5th grade beginner band and plays the trumpet. I wish I could share a photo of him playing the trumpet but they all were sitting down and had the stands in front of them so you could not see any one's face. He did get up to introduce one of the three songs they performed.

The weather sure feels like Christmas in Ohio. It has been cold and snowy. My parents and brother arrive on Tuesday for the holiday and the kids couldn't be more excited! Hope you have a great weekend!

This is for my dad and brother.

You know you've been a bad blogger when the two people who tease you about having a blog are complaining I haven't updated in a while! It has been a crazy month and it seems like it was just Thanksgiving and now we are 11 days from Christmas!



Wanted to post some layouts I did with the November All Moments Remembers kit. Better late than never, right? As always, the kit was packed with goodies. I am really going to miss these kits! The pic is not the best on this first layout but wanted to use it anyway. You would think Disney photographers would do a better job. I will say the lighting was horrible inside the castle.

This is from this past Thanksgiving. OA Weathervane was perfect for this!

Ooops, sorry! I had to remove this LO for publication. It will be back soon!

Stay tuned for more with this awesome kit. Just to let everyone know even though AMR won't be doing monthly kits anymore they still will continue the message board and online store. There is a big one year anniversary crop January 9-10. Lots of fun things planned with lots of RAKS! Check the message board for details!



Just one more week of school left for me and the boys and then we are on Christmas break! Yay! Zachary's basketball season is in full swing and the team is doing really well. Our weekends will be full of Bball until February. He is also performing in the band Christmas concert Tuesday night. Connor is busy with Cub Scouts and will start basketball in January.



I hope everyone has a great week! Now I must go wrap something.